»New Australian Extremist Political Party - Family First«
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 As you all don't know, there was recently another election here in Australia, along with the sad outcome came a new extremist party called 'Family First', party run by religion and pety family values often practiced by rich, neglegant parents! Their policies are as follows ---------------------------------------------- Family Well-Being Family First believes the family is the most important social unit in society. Family First believes that families are the foundation stone of society. We will work towards the ideal that all Australian families have the opportunity to participate fully in society. We will therefore promote both the rights and responsibilities of families, as well as the rights and responsibilities of government towards families. While the focus of Family First is to strengthen families as a fundamental building block of society, it will work to ensure not only that the rights of children and parents are always protected, but also advanced where necessary to ensure the best interests of children in particular. Family First will champion the cause of the Australian family with the aim of ensuring that public policy encourages the development of strong effective families. Health Family First believes the health of the nation starts with the health of each family. Health is fundamental to a person's total well-being. Family First recognises that health means more than mere absence of disease and encompasses a state of well-being that is physical, psychological and social. Accordingly, whilst Family First will promote and support measures to improve the accessibility and quality of healthcare for all Australians, it will also seek to promote health in its broadest sense across the range of sectors that can impact health outcomes. Family First agrees with the fundamental conditions and resources for health as outlined in the Ottawa Charter. Family First believes that good health begins in the community and in each family, recognising that health is strongly affected by early development. Family First believes every person is entitled to just and equitable access to quality health services and is committed to providing opportunities for all families, particularly underprivileged, isolated and aged persons, and those in remote and rural centres to receive appropriate medical care. Family First sees the supportive and robust social unit of the family as the crux of better well-being for all Australians. Family First is committed to promoting the ideal that the duty of health carers is to promote health, relieve suffering and safeguard life. Family First is committed to supporting palliative care. Housing Family First recognises that housing should be affordable and accessible to all Australians. Family First recognises that housing stability and security are crucial to healthy and stable family life and ultimately for the optimal development and education of children. Family First also recognises that home ownership provides a fundamental plank in Australia's Social Security Safety Net and an important aspect of sound retirement planning. Education Family First sees education as the cornerstone to developing and equipping young Australians to assure theirs and the nation's future. Family First believes that education should provide a young person with a learning environment that fosters the holistic development of children and young people and builds strong foundations for adult life. Family First believes an environment that encourages pursuit of excellence in the intellectual, social, emotional and physical spheres, along with sound understanding of Australian heritage and culture will best fit our young people with life skills and competencies. Economic Management Economic Management for a Sustainable Society Family First believes that social justice is fundamental to a sustainable society and that sound economic management is an important component of our nation's strategies for achieving this. Family First will promote and support responsible economic management to build a strong economy providing a good standard of living for all members of society and sufficient employment growth to ensure the health and sustainability of Australian families. Family First acknowledges that full employment, whilst needing to be balanced with other economic objectives, is nonetheless an essential condition for a strong economy, for healthy and effective families and for a just society. Accordingly Family First will support sound economic policies aimed at fostering sustainable employment growth together with the protection and promotion of working conditions that respect the dignity of all participants in the workforce. Family First will also support economic policies that promote price stability together with external economic stability. Family First will also promote management measures that ameliorate the growing inequity in income and wealth distribution across Australian Society. Family First will work with Unions and small business in particular to sustain legislative initiatives that balance economic objectives with the interests of the family. At the same time Family First will champion opportunities for all Australian families including those sectors who have historically been disadvantaged. Family First recognises that Australia faces a growing demographic imbalance and that decisive action is needed to reverse the declining trends in the birth rate if our economic prosperity is to be preserved. Family First acknowledges the immensely positive and enriching contributions migrants have made to the development of our nation. Family First recognises that well managed and compassionate intakes of new migrants and refugees, committed to our nation and constitution, will continue to have a positive impact on our society's growth and prosperity. Environment & Resources Ecologically sustainable development calls for environmental stewardship, which recognises that local needs are connected to global and national responsibilities. Family First is committed to the environment as essential to ensuring the health and happiness of future generations of families. Family First gives a high priority to the resolution of Australia's natural resource management issues. Family First believes in Australia being a signatory to international agreements that acknowledge the global nature of environmental problems. Family First recognises environmental stewardship includes the small as well as significant decisions and that both lead to creating a long term sustainable society. Family First acknowledges that government partnership with industry, agriculture and science is crucial to addressing the serious environmental challenges of water resource management and declining soil quality and biodiversity across large parts of Australia. Security Quote: Family First is committed to security as it is essential for the family and has both a domestic and international dimension.
A sense of security that incorporates both domestic and international dimensions is essential for the family. It is committed to winning the war against terror and acknowledges the need for careful deployment of our armed forces, in co-operation with allies and the international community. Family First sees the promotion of social, economic and political justice as integral to our global responsibilities and integral to removing the causes of the war on terror and will champion a substantial increase in the level of Australian overseas aid. Family First believes in the need for the nation to protect its borders and to manage immigration and refugee applications in an orderly and compassionate manner. Aged Care Family First believes that older Australians have a wealth of knowledge and experience which deserves to be valued and respected as playing a vital role in the formation of new generations. Family First will seek to promote the participation of the aged in the life of families, communities and society by: Encouraging programs that integrate the elderly into society such as voluntary organisations Ensuring the provision of appropriate care that promote healthier ageing and improved quality at the end stages of life. Family First recognises that there are significant problems in the Aged Care Sector and will seek to improve the levels of funding whilst also addressing structural problems within the sector. Family First will work to establish greater security and safety in the care of the frail aged through the provision of greater choice in housing and nursing home choice and in improved standards within Aged Care Facilities. Asylum Seekers Family First recognises and supports Australia's international and humanitarian commitments in regard to asylum seekers whilst also advancing the need to protect Australia's borders from illegal immigration and threats to the security and health of Australians. Family First believes that Australia should seek to advance improvement in the levels of international co-operation and wider recognition of responsibilities to offer asylum and protection to refugees and other displaced persons so as to share the load more equitably amongst nations. Family First recognises that many asylum seekers wait for many years in refugee. Family First will support measures to improve and expedite these processes to create fairer and just outcomes. In regard to the immediate problems facing Australia in its response to asylum seekers who arrive: 1.Family First will strongly support an immediate investigation into what is needed to expedite the processing of applications and will strongly support any Government initiative which will restore Australia's reputation for being a compassionate society. 2.Family First believes that the process should be reformed to ensure fast processing that accords with principles of procedural fairness and is aimed at quickly and thoroughly ascertaining the substance of the asylum seeker's claims for refugee status. Those without genuine refugee or humanitarian claims should be quickly returned. 3.Family First would support the provision of additional resources to ensure detention time is kept to an absolute minimum. 4.Family First supports a strictly limited period of mandatory detention only for the purposes of assessment as to health and security risk. Family First believes that medium security supervised hostel arrangement should be introduced for the more appropriate housing of asylum seekers. 5.Family First believes that as soon as health, identity and security issues have been resolved asylum seekers should be transferred to low security hostel facilities until their claims can be fully processed. Such Hostel facilities, whilst providing more normalized interaction with the wider community, would still allow for discrete and reasonable supervision, assistance and monitoring of movements. 6.Family First believes the management and design of facilities should be conducive to the needs of unaccompanied children and family groups and provide safe and supportive environments. 7.Family First believes that special care should be taken to ensure that unaccompanied minors who have satisfied security, identity and health checks are placed in the care of suitable foster carers either within the hostel or in the community. 8.Family First believes that once refugee status has been ascertained every effort and support must be given to those applicants who have had their application approved to ensure their transition into the Australian community is managed with sensitivity and compassion. Sufficient support should be provided such that State and Territory and welfare and volunteer organisations are not over burdened. Tax Deductibility - Education Expenses Family First sees education as the cornerstone to developing and equipping young Australians to assure theirs and the nation's future. Family First acknowledges the diversity of beliefs, traditions and values within Australian homes and will defend parents' rights to choose schooling that supports their family's values. Family First supports the provision of tax deductibility for school education expenses up to a limit of $3000 per year per family whether their child attends a public and private school. Pornography Family First acknowledges the role of parents in protecting children from harmful exposure to media. However Family First also acknowledges the difficulties even conscientious parents face in effectively carrying out this role in an age when media and internet are so pervasive. In the best interests of children, Government must take a more proactive role. Family First will work to achieve Government commitment to establish a Mandatory Filtering Scheme at the ISP Server Level in this country. A combination of Government subsidy and industry contributions could be explored to fund set up of such a scheme. Whilst set up costs will be large at $45 million, Family First believes that this cost is justified for the protection of vulnerable children within our community. Family First will propose that once set up, this scheme will be funded through a levy system so as to spread ongoing costs equitably amongst all end users. Family First expects this levy would be of the order of between $7 and $10 annually per end user. Joint Custody Family First recognises the unique and irreplaceable role undertaken by mothers and fathers. Family First recognises that parents have the primary responsibility for the nurture, raising and education of their children. Family First believes that the present operation of Family Law that delivers mostly sole residency is not serving children's best interests and in many cases leads to significant negative impacts on the relationship between the "non-custodial" parent and their child as well as increased stress on the "custodial" parent. Whilst the principle of Shared Parenting or Joint Guardianship is important and beneficial to the child, it does not go far enough. Family first supports the introduction of a rebuttable presumption of joint residency for children after relationship breakdown such that the meaningful involvement by both parents in the life of their children is maximised in terms of time and the exercise of parental responsibilities. Children alternating their residence on a regular or routine basis between the two parents might achieve joint residency, in many cases. The advantages of joint residency include: facilitate and enhance both parents' capacity to participate fully in overall parenting help to ensure that strong and meaningful relationships are continued with both parents and the children. greatly facilitate the continued relationships of the child with extended family members. It is crucial that the child be permitted contact with his or her wider family on both sides, unless it can be established that such contact would cause the child physical, emotional or mental harm. Most studies indicate that children, themselves, favour this outcome. would give both parents a clear understanding of their expected responsibility during any discussion prior to separation and it would place each parent on an equal footing at the commencement of any proceedings concerning residency orders. The presumption of Joint residency could be rebutted in a number of circumstances: One Parent may argue to the court that joint residency would not be in the interests of their child in their particular circumstances perhaps because of work or travel commitments. Or the Court may determine that it could not be ordered because residency with one of the parents, is likely to pose a threat to the physical, psychological or emotional well being of the child. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'll put a download in my next post with their full list of policies! posted by hungarian kid |
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| in-my-opinion.orgPoliticsPolitics and Crime (Assorted topics)New Australian Extremist Political Party - Family First |
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Quote: The World Today - Monday, 20 September , 2004 12:26:00
Reporter: Karen Barlow, Nance Haxton ELEANOR HALL: The newly formed The Family First Party is already featuring in preference discussions, as we've been hearing. Formed by senior figures in the South Australian-based Pentecostal church group, the "Assemblies of God", this party already claims to be the nation's fourth major party and it's fielding 126 election candidates. The Greens leader, Bob Brown, has tagged Family First members "extreme right" and has questioned their policies, which include an opposition to same sex relationships and approval of the war in Iraq. But Family First Party members deny it is a Christian party, saying they just have strong family values. This report from Karen Barlow. KAREN BARLOW: More disenchanted voters than ever are considering whether to stray from major political parties. The small parties are considered such a threat that senior politicians are going out of their way to dismiss them as kooky or extreme. The Nationals leader John Anderson has described the Greens Party as a variety of fruit over the past few weeks, while the resurgent Pauline Hanson has been called a celebrity seeker. But the party just about everyone seems to have done a preference deal with, Family First, is according to the Greens leader Bob Brown, far, far right. Family First was formed two years ago by the former president of the Pentecostal Christian group, "Assemblies of God, " Andrew Evans. He is now a South Australian State MP. Other senior members of the party are also Assemblies of God members, but they deny it's a church based party or extreme right. Federal Party Leader, Andrea Mason. ANDREA MASON: Well, I've been afforded the comments that have been made by Senator Bob Brown in Tasmania, but I've also heard that the Democrats have come out and talked about our policies as being moderate. If you look at what we've talked about here in South Australia – we've put up a bill, which dealt with the issue of child abuse in this state, it has moved forward the ability of victims of child abuse to be able to seek justice through the courts. We've put up an inquiry into the status of fathers, we've dealt with issues that are broad ranging and even with this federal election, we're talking about filters that block pornography off the internet, which we believe, at the end of the day, would be harmful for children. We're talking about very balanced and I think moderate policies. KAREN BARLOW: South Australian senator Meg Lees says they are serious contenders for a South Australian Senate seat. MEG LEES: Well, their base is here in South Australia, but they seem fairly confident they have the people on the ground in other states. And if you staff polling booths then it's an extra 2, 3, 4 per cent of the vote at that booth. So in the Senate that could make all the difference and they are getting preferences, or certainly in South Australia, they're getting preferences from some of the very, very tiny parties and unaligned groups. So they could be up there with a vote of 5 or 6 per cent and with Liberal preferences that could really keep them in there. KAREN BARLOW: That deal with the Liberal Party puts Family First above the former Democrats leader on their how to vote cards. In return Family First is giving Lower House preferences to the Liberal party. The swap comes despite Senator Lees' record on working with the Government on legislation such as the GST and a personal endorsement by John Howard. MEG LEES: Well, I'm not all that surprised. I'm not surprised Labor is working with the Greens. The major parties will work with other parties if they see it is of benefit to them. In a purely electoral sense, if it's going to help them get elected, then that is who they will work with. NANCE HAXTON: The party itself and how it was set up, it was set up by a senior member of the Pentecostal group, the Assembly of God, yet they deny that they are Christian group. Do you think there's some sort of conflict within this political party? MEG LEES: Well I've always understood them to simply be the political arm of the Assemblies of God Church and they've never, when I've spoken to them, pulled away from that. ANDREA MASON: Absolutely not, we are not a Christian party, we've got a wide base of support in the community and there are people from all walks of life – mums and dads, people who are working in employment, students – who see what we are doing as making a positive difference in the community here in South Australia and I believe that that is going to get transferred federally. ELEANOR HALL: Family First Federal Party leader Andrea Mason, ending that report from Karen Barlow and Nance Haxton.  Downloads taking a while, it'll be in the next post! posted by hungarian kid |
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 What's wrong with family values? posted by knn |
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Hrmm sorry if I made my message unclear, they do have good policies but they have very bad ones but I'm doing about 20 things at once at the moment! One thing I can say about them is they're anti-homosexuals (homosexuals apparently being bad for families). posted by hungarian kid |
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I'm doing a horrible job of research at the moment! All the things I've seen them say in interviews I've been unable to find! One dramatic case was when a reporter asked a member if they were 'Pro-Lesbian Burning' to which he responded 'yes', apparently he was scolded thoroughly for his answer but I've been unable find much else! posted by hungarian kid |
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Quote: Last updated 29 September, 2004
Family First’s friends go coy Subscriber email - 29 September Drop by the Assemblies of God website,  Are they disobeying Biblical instruction and hiding their light under a bushel in the lead up to the election to assist their friends in Family First. Many key Family First personnel are linked with the church, but as their details are not available from the Assemblies of God website at the moment here are a few pertinent details. Take federal chairman Peter Harris, a self-described property developer and management consultant. He has been a member of Paradise AOG for ten or fifteen years from his accounts, and has been on the board of the church for many of those, at least the last five. In the late nineties, he was involved in setting a strategic vision for Paradise AOG to bring the church into a “position of influence” over the political, business and media communities in Adelaide. Harris is involved heavily in the business ministry – a ministry that makes much of the God given role of business people is to make money to support the work of the church. This network of Christian businesspeople has been a significant source of funds for the church and, presumably, Family First. Then there is the Evans family. Andrew Evans is a Member of the South Australian Legislative Council. He has two sons, Ashley and Russell, who are also both pastors. Ashley is the Senior Pastor of Paradise AOG in Adelaide, while Russell is the director of Planetshakers Ministries, their youth conference, and is the Senior Pastor of the new City Church Melbourne church which was started earlier this year and meets at Storey Hall, RMIT. More details on the City Church Melbourne team are available here. And the question everyone is asking – where’s the money coming from? One church insider e-mails: “Pentecostal churches are brilliant at fundraising. Even though we can trust Family First when they say they aren't being funded by the AOG or by particular churches, with people like Peter Harris and the Evans's involved, you can bet your bottom dollar the same people involved with supporting Christian ministries like Paradise and Planetshakers are involved with supporting Family First. So while the organisations are separate, the same identities are most probably present, both on the fundraising and the giving sides of things. “When Peter Harris was in Melbourne late last year, he was saying that they were preparing for this Federal election. My guess is that while the process of putting up candidates and building local support bases has been very last minute, Peter & Co were probably obtaining commitments of money well in advance of the election, if not from the moment Evans senior got into the upper house in SA.” One significant Family First mystery remains. Yesterday, The Australian revealed that the party will not directly preference three Liberals – the openly gay Ingrid Tall in Brisbane and parliamentary secretary Warren Entsch, a supporter of same-sex marriages. But the third? No one knows. Any clues, Crikey army? We’ve heard some suggestions, but they seem to be based on slurs on sexuality rather than hard fact. Over to you, subscribers. Family First set the record straight Second subscriber email - 27 September Family First have now published this document on their website called “The truth about Family First – setting the record straight”. It contains the following claim: “The party has not raised any bill against Abortion in the SA parliament…” No, but check out this question on notice from their lone State MP, Andrew Evans, in response to - would you believe it - the release of ABS data on South Australia’s low rate of population growth: “I note that the list of factors contributing to South Australia 's low population rate did not state that thousands of abortions were carried out each year. In South Australia last year a total of 5 471 abortions were carried out…. It is my understanding that, if we applied the same figure given for the number of abortions carried out last year … to the year 2050, the population of South Australia would rise by 246,376. "It is my understanding that certain centres in the United States , such as a centre called A Woman's Concern in Massachusetts , provide extensive support, counselling and assistance, as well as accessing the use of technology such as ultrasound to allow the expectant mother to view her baby. The result is that many women make a choice not to proceed with abortion. It is my understanding from a preliminary survey carried out from October 2000 to December 2001 at The Revere Centre (a centre that follows the above approach, that is, counselling and the use of ultrasound) that, of the abortion-minded women who contact the centre to have an abortion, a total of 74 per cent do not abort. My questions to the Premier are: "1. Will the government investigate programs in the United States that are reducing the number of abortions being carried out in centres such as A Woman's Concern and The Revere in Massachusetts which provide counselling and the use of technology such as ultrasound to inform women prior to an abortion being carried out; and will the government give consideration to a pilot project being undertaken in South Australia? If not, why not? "2. Given the government's new population policy aimed at increasing the population in South Australia to two million by the year 2050, will the government give consideration to introducing a bill to ensure that medical practitioners obtain a signed declaration from both abortion vulnerable and abortion minded women to confirm that full disclosure of all the risks associated with having an abortion has been presented so that these women are fully informed when consenting to an abortion? If not, why not? You can read it for yourself here. Anybody like to explain to Family First why not? This certainly sets the record straight about where Family First stands on abortion. Meanwhile, read what Crikey has written on Family First so far on the site here:  Is the Uniting Church part of Family First? A candidate in the current election writes: The Family First media release titled "The Truth About Family First - Setting the Record Straight" also stated "The Board of Reference includes...people from Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran and Uniting and other church groups". I don't believe anyone comes from the Uniting Church. If they are refering to Rev Rob Moores, he left the Uniting Church six months ago over the sexuality issue, and started a new church in which he names his mentor as being Andrew Evans MLC. Also I believe that no candidates, including the number one senate candidates were voted into their positions. Everyone is just chosen - or annointed! Quote: The Family First files
Subscriber email - 22 September, second edition Three links about God-botherers - this blog on how the Assemblies of God tell their congregation to vote, this very puzzling piece on Family First's only MP and in today's Herald Sun, Andrew Bolt reveals what he sees as the sinister side of the conservative Chrisitian party in his column on the power of the pulpit. Meanwhile, a Green supporter writes: The papers are all writing that Family First are opposed to euthanasia and gay marriage. They are also opposed to abortion as as you can see from this contribution from their number two Queensland senate candidate Tracey Skellern-Smith writing in an online bulletin board. Alot more at - While I do agree Family First have some great policies, their Bias towards homosexuality and abortions seems strongly Religion-based, when really we need to be ruled by a government that accepts all religions and beliefs but doesn't enforce their own onto people! posted by hungarian kid |
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